Bridge collapse: 60 feared dead
2005-08-09 12:29
Abuja - About 60 persons were feared killed in Jalingo in northeastern Nigeria on Monday after a bridge on which they were standing to watch the flooding Jalingo River collapsed, reports from the region said.
The reports from Taraba State in the northeast said that among the dead was a riot policeman who had been sent to disperse the crowd of people from the "Nukkai" bridge when it collapsed.
Six bodies have so far been recovered.
The reports said the accident came after a five-hour torrential rainfall in the area, causing the Jalingo River to overflow its banks.
One eyewitness said hundreds of people had gone to the bridge to watch the flood.
The eyewitness said police and road safety officials were still vainly trying to persuade the crowd to vacate the bridge just at the moment that half of the structure collapsed.
Habu Sani, the top civil servant in the Home Affairs and Social Services Ministry of Taraba State, said the incident was "devastating, most unfortunate and unprecedented in the state".
Sani said efforts were being made to immediately move some residents of the area to some primary schools, adding that the river was too full for any successful rescue operation to begin immediately.
A former Speaker of the Taraba State parliament, Simon Shinpu, who resides near the river, called on the Nigerian government to immediately come to the aid of the people.
Also affected by the heavy downpour were unidentified number of people who had gone to their farm when the rains started and were feared dead.
- SAPA